24. Be proactive to save money - Telcos' confusion

Telcos all over the world confuse clients. Below is a excellent report on the situation in Singapore in April 20910 from one lady. She should be in the consulting and research field. All the time, I had the perception that Starhub who was the first mover in providing free in-coming calls was still the best value-for-money of the 3 telcos in Singapore.

Telcos rely on the "inertia" of people. People who have subscribed to the line will usually not want to switch to the better deal and they start giving various packages to confuse comparisons. Unless one has the time to research on this.

E-MAIL FROM DR SING

On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Kong Yuen Sing <99pups@gmail.com> wrote:

96640404 is not available. Can you recommend me whether I should subscribe to Starhub or Singtel and what plans? I will do it on Monday and get for you the tel no

E-MAIL TO DR SING

You can subscribe to corporate SunSaver Plus plan from M1 for a 3-months subscription period without handset.

Below is the details of this plan:
Corporate SunSaver Plus
- monthly subscription $48.15
- free local outgoing mins cap at 300mins
- free local sms cap at 500sms
- M1's free incoming calls is valid till 31 Dec 2012
- Excess local outgoing mins are charged 16.05¢ flat per min. Excess local sms-es are charged 5.35¢ per sms.

I estimated that the business calls usage would range from 400mins to 500mins so the monthly phone bill incurred is likely to ranged from $64.20 to $80.25. If one day you find that the monthly phone bill consistently exceeds $82.95 for months due to the business call usage exceeding 516mins and I would suggest an upgrade to SunMax plan (scroll down for details on SunMax plan). Meanwhile, you can subscribe to SunSaver Plan plan first.

Pls: scroll down below for explanation to the choice.

Thanks.

Regards,
Ling

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Note: Though you told me to choose the plan, I think it's still right to explain to you the choice. Below is the rather lengthy explanation if you are free to go through:

The monthly subscription pricing of the free incoming calls corporate plans of the Starhub, M1 and Singtel are essentially the same. But Starhub's and M1's free incoming calls corporate plans comes with per second billing, which is more economical than Singtel which charges by an initial block of 1min and subsequent blocks of 6secs. For the validity date of the free incoming call, M1's free incoming call is valid till Dec 31, 2012 while Starhub's and Singtel's free incoming calls are valid till Dec 31, 2010.

The minimum subscription period without purchase of handset is 3-months for all the three mobile service providers.

If you plan to subscribe for 3-months or 6-months, for which the subscription would end before Dec 21, 2010, it wouldn't make a difference whether you choose to Starhub or M1. However, if you plan to subscribe for 1-year, I would suggest that you sign under M1 as Starhub's free incoming calls are not valid after Dec 31, 2010.

I estimate that the business calls minutes can range between 400 to 500mins.

If you intend to subscribe to Starhub, you can choose
- Corporate PowerValue 300
monthly subscription $48.15
free outgoing mins cap at 300mins
free sms cap at 500sms

- Corporate PowerValue 700
monthly subscription $82.93
free outgoing mins cap at 700mins
free sms cap at 500sms

If you intend to subscribe to M1, you can choose
- Corporate SunSaver Plus
monthly subscription $48.15
free outgoing mins cap at 300mins
free sms cap at 500sms

- Corporate SunMax
monthly subscription $82.93
free outgoing mins cap at 700mins
free sms cap at 500sms

To simplify, you can subscribe the corporate SunSaver Plus plan from M1 first. If you plan to renew the subscription in the future, you can still enjoy the free incoming calls which is valid till Dec 31, 2012. If one day you were to feel that the corporate SunSaver Plus plan is insufficient for your business calls usage, you can upgrade to the corporate SunMax plan.